From Vending Snacks to Venting Anger; Food Sellers Are Set to Protest Partial Ban on Carts, but Retail Rivals Like It

Three decades ago, a rail-thin immigrant from Greece raised an oversized umbrella on the corner of William and John Streets and staked his claim to a piece of lower Manhattan concrete. From now on, the gesture said, George Markopoulos would be selling hot dogs and sauerkraut from this location.

Nearly every weekday since then he has plied his trade, presenting each foil-wrapped hot dog to the customer as though it were a gift.

But just up John Street, another Greek immigrant named Tom Tsolomytis has spent the last two decades running the Roxy Food Shop, a 24-hour diner that advertises its specials -- ''shrimp-salad sandwich, $3.50'' -- on paper plates. And he has no appreciation for the panache, or the plight, of street vendors, whose numbers have grown in recent years.

''The only thing I know is they hurt my business,'' Mr. Tsolomytis said, a toothpick nestled behind his ear.

The inherent conflict between rent-paying business owners like Mr. Tsolomytis and street vendors like Mr. Markopoulos will reach a crescendo today, when hundreds of vendors are expected to participate in a morning-long demonstration to protest the Giuliani administration's decision to ban food carts -- as well as vendors selling items like clothing -- from 144 streets throughout the city, beginning in July. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has said the ban is needed to ease congestion on busy sidewalks.

The vendors plan to meet at Liberty Park in lower Manhattan at 9 A.M., hold a news conference, then walk down Broadway to rally in Battery Park. As a result, protest leaders say, thousands of customers will have to do without their cheap daily sustenance of street-corner fruit, sandwiches or coffee. In addition, the organizers say, companies that supply the hot dogs and soda, along with the bakeries that supply the doughnuts and bagels, are shutting down to show their solidarity.

''It's a shutdown for the whole day, and it's going to be a great turnout,'' said Jeff Cicio, the president of the Big Apple Food Vendors Association. ''We want the public to know that we have a serious problem.''

In fact, many customers interviewed yesterday said that the vendors did no harm in their current locations. And they said they liked the low prices, tasty if nutritionally questionable fare, and New York ambiance that the food carts represent. ''I've been coming here for two and a half years, two times a week,'' said Anthony Pepe, a city employee who frequents Mr. Markopoulos's stand. ''I think it's terrible that he'd have to move. I've never seen a pedestrian problem as far as where he stands.''

The ban focuses on many of the narrow streets in the financial district of lower Manhattan. On the city's map, for example, the intersection of William and John Streets has become an X over the livelihood of Mr. Markopoulos, 58, who is hunched from so many years beneath his cart's metal overhang.

Several business-improvement districts agree with the Mayor's contention that the restrictions are needed to ease congestion on the sidewalks. They emphasize that the number of street vendors is not being reduced -- only the number of places where they can operate. But Mr. Markopoulos countered that the city's argument defied basic economics: if hundreds of vendors moved to sanctioned, out-of-the-way locations, the combination of less traffic and more vendors would hurt business for everybody.

''You don't make any money, and I don't make any money,'' Mr. Markopoulos said. ''After all these years, I don't want to go someplace else.''

But Carl Weisbrod, the president of the Alliance for Downtown New York -- a business-improvement district that filed many of the complaints that led to the restrictions in lower Manhattan -- said that in addition to congestion, another element is at play in the debate: competition. ''There is the ongoing issue of complaints from retail establishments that pay rent and property taxes and whose owners look outside to see vendors who don't,'' he said. ''And they are in direct competition right outside their own stores.''

And if the travails of Mr. Markopoulos have resonance, so too do the experiences of Mr. Tsolomytis. Every morning, he walks up John Street to see carts everywhere, poised to sell coffee, bagels and doughnuts at discount prices. By 11 A.M., he said, those carts are sold out -- and his unsold doughnuts are turning stale near the cash register.

Mr. Tsolomytis, 54, who says he has not taken a vacation in a decade, said that he used to sell 15 dozen bagels a day; now he sells about 4 dozen. The recollection brings to his face an expression that does not match the message on his plastic coffee cups: ''We are happy to serve you.''

The same tension could be found in midtown yesterday between retail owners and food vendors, all vying in the same market of feeding people cheaply. John Poulos, the owner of the Deli-Burger Restaurant, on West 45th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, called the impending restrictions ''a miracle,'' then sounded a familiar refrain.

''This place costs me $6,000 a month in rent, I have six employees, and utility bills to pay,'' he said. ''And those guys pay nothing. I have to compete with these guys selling coffee and a bagel for $1. I sell it for $1 and lose 20 cents every time. But what am I going to do? I can't sell it for more than them or nobody will come here.

''I don't mind seeing one guy here, and one guy there, as long as they are spread out,'' he added. ''But on this street, they are everywhere. I hope the restrictions are going to go through and I hope that Giuliani will stick with them. It's a blessing.''

But the restrictions are a curse for Mohammed Kueder, a hot-dog vendor who has stationed himself at the northwest corner of West 56th Street and Avenue of the Americas for the last four years. Like so many vendors, he pays no rent, but incurs other expenses that eat into his small profit margin. He said he saw no recourse but to protest.

''I have to take care of my family,'' he said. ''Maybe Giuliani will listen to us if enough people show up. I don't think the protest will work -- the Mayor has probably made up his mind -- but I hope it does.''

Judging by Mr. Giuliani's comments yesterday, it is doubtful that the protest will affect his opinion on the matter. ''The fact is that there are some parts of the city that are too overcrowded,'' he said. ''There have been some food vendors that have engaged in unsanitary conditions -- more than a few. So we need some changes.''

Such comments by the Mayor -- particularly the references to ''unsanitary conditions'' -- infuriate Mr. Cicio, who is organizing today's protest. He said that Mr. Giuliani was trying to sway public opinion by portraying the vendors as ''dirty, smelly terrorists running nontaxpaying businesses,'' when ''in fact we're the heaviest-regulated business in the city.''

He said that the vendors hoped the protest would prompt the City Council to enact legislation to create more balance in establishing the locations where the vendors can operate. Last night, two Council members, Stephen DiBrienza and Anthony D. Weiner, said they would present a bill to disband the Sidewalk Vendor Review Panel, which is controlled by the Mayor and developed the new restrictions.

Meanwhile, the vendors have only the sympathies of some customers to ease their concerns. ''Giuliani does great things, but sometimes I think he gets carried away,'' said Miguel Diaz, stopping for a knish at a stand on Church and Vesey Streets that will be required to move. ''These stands have been a part of New York since Day One.''

Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Markopoulos tucked away the wooden platform he stands on to reduce back strain. He closed the metal doors of his cart, and then rolled his livelihood -- which has a photograph of his 2-year-old granddaughter wedged between a soda-can display -- through the winding downtown streets to Rich Street, where he and a few other vendors keep their carts in a warehouse overnight.